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Chapter 3: Navigation


Contents of Book Chapter

  • Introduction to Navigation
  • Link Functions
  • Navigation Affordances
  • Link States
  • Navigational Text
  • Navigational Images
  • Navigation Organization Tools
  • Link Reliability
  • Navigation and Accessibility

Resources

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Exercises
(mouseover answer boxes to reveal answers)

Check Your Reading Comprehension

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Critical Thinking Exercises (long answer)

Use vocabulary and concepts from the text to answer the following questions. Provide examples to document your explanation.

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Hands-on Exercises

  • Pick an existing web site on the web. Answer each of the following questions and discuss whether or not the choices made on this site are appropriate for its content and audience.
    • Is the site using a broad-but-shallow or narrow-but-deep hierarchy?
    • Is the site using frames?
    • Are there multiple means of navigation? What are they?
    • Is the site using text links, navigational graphics, or both?
    • Are current links disabled?
    • Are external links opened in new window(s)?
    • Does the site seem to be accessible?
  • Pick an existing web site on the web and evaluate it based on the entire architecture and navigation checklist at the end of the chapter. What did the designers do right, and what did they do wrong?
  • Surf the web to find a site that has “killer” navigation, and another one that has poor navigation. Compare and contrast what the “killer” site did well that the other site didn’t do so well. How would you redesign the site that has poor navigation?

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Ongoing Case Study Exercise

  • Building upon the site analysis you did in Chapter 2 as you began the the ongoing case study, design at least two navigation schemes for both the home page and all lower-level pages. Evaluate the two schemes and choose the one that seems best.
  • Flesh out the chosen navigation scheme that you created for the previous question. Write and test the preliminary HTML for just the menu system.

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| Home | General | 1: Introduction | 2: Site Analysis | 3: Navigation |
| 4:Layout | 5: Color | 6: Graphics | 7: Typography | 8: Forms |